his own shape that God made him in; and
not a mere crank in the social engine-house, welded on principles that
he does not understand, and for purposes that he does not care for.

For will any one dare to tell me that business is more entertaining than
fooling among boats? He must have never seen a boat, or never seen an
office, who says so. And for certain the one is a great deal better for
the health. There should be nothing so much a man's business as his
amusements. Nothing but money-grubbing can be put forward to the
contrary; no one but

Mammon, the least erected spirit that fell
From Heaven,

durst risk a word in answer. It is but a lying cant that would represent
the merchant and the banker as people disinterestedly toiling for
mankind, and then most useful when they are most absorbed in their
transactions; for the man is more important than his services. And when
my Royal Nautical Sportsman shall have so far fallen from his hopeful
youth that he cannot pluck up an enthusiasm over anything but his
ledger, I venture to doubt whether he will be near so nice a fellow, and
whether he would welcome, with so good a grace, a couple of drenched
Englishmen paddling into Brussels in the dusk.

When we had changed our wet clothes and drunk a glass of pale ale to the
Club's prosperity, one of their number escorted us to an hotel. He would
not join us at our dinner, but he had no objection to a glass of wine.
Enthusiasm is very wearing; and I begin to understand why prophets were
unpopular in Judea, where they were best known. For three stricken
hours did this excellent young man sit beside us to dilate on boats and
boat-races; and before he left, he was kind enough to order our bedroom
candles.

We endeavoured now and again to change the subject; but the diversion
did not last a moment: the Royal Nautical Sportsman bridled, shied,
answered the question, and then breasted once more into the swelling
tide of his subject. I call it his subject; but I think it was he who
was subjected. The _Arethusa_, who holds all racing as a creature of the
devil, found himself in a pitiful dilemma. He durst not own his
ignorance, for the honour of Old England, and spoke away about English
clubs and English oarsmen whose fame had never before come to his ears.
Several times, and, once above all, on the question of sliding-seats,
he was within an ace of exposure. As for the _Cigarette_, who has rowed
races in the heat of his blo